Wilderland Slot Review

Released in March 2020, this game can be played at online casinos such as Mr Green, Guts or Royal Panda.

Theme and general information

Wilderland is taking is to the magical world of elves and fairies somewhere in the woods, where glow worms dance through the night and a light melody enchants us. It’s night-time, but the forest doesn’t feel threatening. Instead if feels homely.

It’s lovely and if you like that sort of thing, it’s a world you want to dive into and stay in. NetEnt shows us once more what their graphics department is capable of because this game has been beautifully rendered. Every detail is well thought-out and even the low value card suit symbols look like the leaves of trees, ranging in colour from a light spring green to autumn red and brown.

We also get a ring, a pendant, a fox, bow and arrow and an elven maiden on the reels as the high value symbols. The latter is worth 6x our stake for 5 on a payline. The fox follows with 4x our stake for such a win. The bow and arrow are worth the same. The ring and pendant each pay 3.5x our stake for 5 in a win.

You can play this game from 0.20 to a staggering 1000.00 per spin.

The Activation Zone and 5 Wild features

In the base game, you’ll notice the Activation Zone, which highlights the middle row of the reels. It comes into play when two or more wilds land here. Then the Forest Treasure feature is triggered.

Wilds play a particular role in this game, as the title might suggest. The regular wild appears on all reels throughout base game and free spins. But when two wilds land adjacent to each other in the Activation Zone, several things may happen.

Whilst they all transform into walking wilds, there are four different kinds of walking wild:

• Regular walking wild – the two wilds move on space to the left on each subsequent spin until they are gone
• Multiplier walking wild – the wild symbols are fitted out with 2x multipliers, adding to each win as they walk along the reels
• Scatter walking wild – this wild acts also as a scatter, which could trigger the free spins if two or more scatters land now
• Expanding walking wild – this walking wild expands across the whole reel it sits on as it walks across the reels

There is also a chance that the Magic Wild Feature is activated if a stack of Expanding walking wilds is in play. Upon leaving the reels to the left via reel 1, the Expanding walking wild may reappear on reel 5 and start the journey towards reel one once more.

Expanded Activation Zone during free spins

During the free spins, the Activation Zone now covers all reels across all three rows. If the free spins are triggered with 3 scatters, a walking wild is placed on reel 5 on the middle row. Every additional scatter that activates the free spins will award another randomly placed walking wild somewhere else on the reels.

Now, any wild in play will do its thing and walk across the reels on each spin until the arrive on and move off reel 1. If two or more wilds are adjacent to each other anywhere on the reels, the Forest Treasure feature is activated, and we get multiplier and expanded wilds as well.

The feature only ends when there are no more walking wilds on the reels, which may take anywhere between 4 and 15 spins on average, depending on your luck.

Verdict: A beautiful slot that wants to enchant but is utterly boring

The theoretical RTP (Return to Player) of Wilderland is 96.14%, which is solid, especially for a slot of such low to medium volatility. Wins are frequent though rarely big. The Forest Treasure feature also makes a regular appearance. Though, we don’t really know how often the Magic Wild Feature may appear as we didn’t pay much attention to the slot whilst we tested it.

And therein lies the problem. Wilderland will attract fans of such themes and it is beautifully made. But the game is utterly boring to anyone who seeks a little more thrill than that. You may find yourself playing with your phone or glancing at the TV rather than paying attention to what’s happening on the reels. Then, all of a sudden, you’ll play some free spins, win perhaps 40 or 50x your stake and that’s about as exciting as it gets. So, keep that in mind when checking out this video slot from NetEnt.